The one actor who shaped Billy Bob Thornton’s entire career: “He was right”
They don’t make them like Billy Bob Thornton anymore, and, for a lot of people, that might be a good thing. The controversial figure has rarely disappointed when on screen, but his off-screen behaviour has always had a habit of gathering more column inches than his performances, which is a shame considering just how potent an actor he can be.
Think of Monster’s Ball and Bad Santa, and you have two of his most famous performances of all, but there is a lot more to Thornton’s career than those two movies. But 1996’s Sling Blade is a defining moment in his career, complemented by a ‘Best Actor’ nomination. He received another Oscar nod two years later for the tragic story of A Simple Plan.
Before he started to gain the major buzz, Thornton, in the throes of his own wild antics and a love for independent cinema, would meet a Hollywood legend and become completely besotted with him. Redford was a huge name at the time, having lived the life of a true icon from the 1970s onwards. The acclaimed actor was known around Tinseltown as being a solid friend as well as acting partner, and he gave Thornton a piece of advice that would change his life.
“Redford was very good to me, and I only had a couple of scenes in that movie, but I was there for six weeks because it took a long time to get this thing shot,” Thornton explained to the New York Post when talking of 1993’s Indecent Proposal. “That’s when Demi and I first met each other,” he continued. “And [Redford] brought me, I think — I can’t remember — it was like a Newsweek or Time magazine, one of those. And there was an article in there about a movie I’d co-written with Tom Epperson and costarred in called One False Move. And this was a glowing review of One False Move.’’
Written by and starring Thornton, the picture should be regarded as one of the actor’s finest. It revolves around a violent trio who commit a string of murders in Los Angeles. They flee to Arkansas and find themselves pursued by Bill Paxton’s sheriff, Dale Dixon, as he aims to become a local legend and move into the big leagues. It’s a wonderful piece of work that deserves to be viewed. Redford obviously believed something similar.
“He said, ‘Look, have you seen this?’ I said, ‘No. He said, ’Read that.’ And I sat there next to him, and he said, ‘Keep doing that.’ He said, ‘They’re going to come at you with offers now.’ And he said, ‘Don’t go off and play a superhero or something and make money,'” explained Thornton.
Of course for most actors, even those wit the purest of intentions, making money is part of the game, but Redford saw a different path forward: “Right away he said, ‘Stick in this world of independent film for a while, make a name for yourself in that, and then you will transition into bigger stuff later.’ But he said, ‘This is where you need to be in the beginning because you could go out and do one stinker, a big event movie and you’re done,’” Thornton recalled.
“So that’s what he told me. And he was right,” confirmed Thornton. Of course, he would become a star in his own right, bag bundles of cash in the latter stages of his career and do so while being considered one of the more reliable character actors of recent years. While all pieces of advice should be taken with a grain of salt, if Robert Redford tells you to do something, it’s probably easier to just do it.
